Controlling Addresses found like /etc/hosts redirects names.
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I would like a translation table where I can choose which addresses I want to block, and/or redirect. I envision a column on the left hand side with parts of an address like "http://foo.com" or "172.217.12.46" (which happens to be google.com) or https://quux.com/qtpie/ and which translates them into the corresponding address on the right hand side.
This would allow one to control what sites you go to, as its translation would happen before the address gets sent out to the internet. It would also allow one to map bad actors from hijacking your browser.
So to re-iterate, I would like to be able to re-map protocols, Fully qualified domain names, and the rest of a URL under my control instead of depending on a Domain Name Server (DNS) server or my Internet Service Provider (ISP) to translate the URL for me.
I know apache can do something like this, and conceptually this isn't hard. I don't know why it isn't a part of browsers from the start.
Thank you - David
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@whitten Did I post this in the wrong place or is it already answered somewhere else?
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@whitten Feature requests don't necessarily get any replies. If other users like the idea they will upvote it.
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I don't see this happening as DNS resolution is not handled by the browser, apache is a web server.
Also your use case is little vague, what would be the purpose of such redirection? You say mapping bad actors, but if you added dangerous site manually you need to visit it first to become aware that it's dangerous which defeats its purpose?
I believe it's much easier to rely on Googles block list built into Vivaldi. For finer control (as you're probably aware) there are extensions like umatrix which could be loosely described as "browser firewall". Such extensions use community maintained lists of troublesome sites which is far more convenient than doing the job by yourself imho. -
@whitten This can already be done in the O.S. using a "hosts" file
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27350/beginner-geek-how-to-edit-your-hosts-file/Or do you want something different?
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@tbgbe As I understand it, the hosts file allows you to map a hostname into a number (just like DNS does) but what I asked for was to be able to map a NUMBER into a different number. I also asked to be able to map an entire URL (name plus the words after the domain name) into a different URL. (which the DNS does not do)
To my knowledge, this is not something you can do outside the browser, unless you have your own webserver out in the cloud to do it for you.
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@whitten @TbGbe Does this explanation make sense ? I want the browser to act on my behalf when choosing websites, under my control, rather than depending on a DNS or TCP/IP address in a URL that may not retrieve the page that I want.
Following up on that note, I also would like to control whether the browser automatically does redirecting to a new site or URL. This also leaves me out of control.
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@whitten said in Controlling Addresses found like /etc/hosts redirects names.:
Does this explanation make sense ?
In that I understand what you are asking for - yes.
As to how easy it would be to do (if possible at all and still be secure) - I have no idea. -
@tbgbe I'm glad you understand.
On a different note, I would like to get access to all the history I can. Many sites redirect you automatically. I would like to get access to the URLs that redirect to the current page. The history does not currently allow me to get to them. -
@whitten I don't know if I am asking for things that most people don't need, or this is answered in a different place on this site.
Historically, I've had to deal with websites controlling my experience more than I like, and I was hoping that Vivaldi would help me take control of times when the website took away a capability.
This includes when the website used to have information but now it doesn't so it redirects me to a generic page, or when the website simply moved the page to a different place and since the old place doesn't properly redirect to the new place, the code will re-direct me to a generic place or to a 404 page.
These are things that happen when you research things that have been around a long time on the internet. The open internet has been around more than twenty years now, and it is becoming a requirement that browsers help us more than they used to. I was hoping Vivaldi was one that was willing to help us more.
David Whitten
713-870-3834 -
@whitten said in Controlling Addresses found like /etc/hosts redirects names.:
This includes when the website used to have information but now it doesn't so it redirects me to a generic page, or when the website simply moved the page to a different place and since the old place doesn't properly redirect to the new place, the code will re-direct me to a generic place or to a 404 page.
Sorry, but I cannot see what a browser do do in these cases?
Why not use the utilities such as http://www.wayback.com/ ? -
If I understood correctly, the proposal is effectively a global URL rewrite filter for outgoing HTTP requests on the browser side. I've certainly had cases where this would've been useful. The main problem I see is that usability would be difficult to maintain. Should the filter table be actually global, or specific to a tab. Should it be inherited to child tabs? How is a rule defined - should you be expected to write regex patterns for each line, or follow some kind rule wizard?
Value to average user vs. development cost wouldn't be very high in any case. -
@orbik I'm glad someone else sees the value in this.
You have phrased it better than I did.I just ran into another use case today.
I was browsing the web, looking at some research papers that were created using latex2html. This software generates html that refers to several gifs as if they are always available, such as the "next" and "previous" buttons. But as the web progressed, some of these pages fell subject to bit-rot, and the gifs are no longer where the html thinks they should be.If I had the ability to add these URL rewrites, I could tell the browser where to find the gifs, and ultimately had a more pleasant browsing experience. In this case, I'm not sure if I would have put them in a directory on my PC, and tied the broken image links to my copies, or if I would have wanted to define the URL so they were associated with pages on the website, so the next time I browsed there the icons would just "work".
I don't know about defining in terms of regexes or not. I certainly can see advantages. Of course, a "map broken link" option on the right click menu would also be nice too.
Of course, this is assuming that I could convince someone at Vivaldi that the effort is even worth doing.
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Thank you for your request. As it has received few votes over 4 years, it is now going to be archived.
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